Clips and base plates for railway rails



' Nov. 9, 1965 P. SKERRY CLIPS AND BASE PLATES FOR RAILWAY RAILS 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed April 22, 1965 H Maw,

' mil g Nov. 9, 1965 P. SKERRY 3,216,665

CLIPS AND BASE PLATES FOR RAILWAY RAILS Filed April 22, 1963 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 Atiorne y P. SKERRY 3,216,665

CLIPS AND BASE PLATES FOR RAILWAY RAILS Filed April 22, 1963 s Sheets-Sheet 5 Nov. 9, 1965 United States Patent 0 3,216,665 CLIPS AND BASE PLATES FOR RAILWAY RAILS Peter Sherry, Darlington, England, assignor to Toledo Woodhead Springs Limited Filed Apr. 22, 1963, Ser. No. 274,686 8 Claims. (Cl. 238-349) This invention relates to clips and base plates for use with wooden or concrete sleepers to carry fiat-bottomed railway rails, its object being to provide a clip that can be simply driven into operative position in a base 'plate, also of simple form, to receive it, and yet readily removable from the base plate.

Another object is to provide a clip that is so shaped that when it is in operative position in a base plate designed to receive it, the stresses to which it is subjected in use, and particularly stresses resulting from vibration transmitted from the rail, tend to reinforce the stresses resulting from driving it into position and thus to maintain that position.

A further object is to provide a clip that is resistant to the effects of temperature changes.

Yet another object is to provide a base plate to receive the spring clip and to co-operate with the clip in bringing the latter into efiective stressed operative position.

With these and other objects appearing from the following description in view, a spring clip for the purpose indicated comprises, according to the invention, a strip of flat section spring steel the edgewise configuration of which presents a generally upright portion that bends smoothly at the top into an arch ending in a downwardly directed toe to bear on the rail foot, the bottom of the upright portion having a short length of convex curvature on the side facing the toe position, with a greater length having a convex curvature on the side facing away from the toe position, this merging smoothly from the other convex portion and in turn into the arch.

Likewise, a base plate according to the invention to receive the clip has, at each side of a seating recess for the rail foot, a generally upright slot, parallel to the nearer side of that recess and spaced from the recess by less than the length of the arch span of the clip, with a curved recess in one face of the slot to conform to and receive one of the convexly curved lengths of the generally upright portion of the clip, the mid-height of the bearing contact of that portion with the face of the slot remote from the toe of the clip on the rail foot.

The upright portion of a clip is locked in the slot in a base plate when driven downwardly, the arch deflecting to exert continuous pressure on the rail flange on which its toe bears.

The base plate and clip thus co-operate to put the latter in stressed condition by the bearing of the bottom convex length of the upright portion of the clip in the conforming recess in the former, at a location reached only by putting the arch under bearing stress on the rail. The clip thus resists the effects of vibration or of temperature changes to dislodge.

However, the clip is easily removed by the provision of a hole in the bottom of the base plate for the insertion of a pinch bar below the clip, to prise the clip from bearing position in the slot. To facilitate this, the bottom end of the clip may slope downwardly and inwardly, to receive the edge of the pinch bar.

Various forms of clip, and one form of base plate to receive them, are shown in the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIGURE 1 is a side elevation of the base plate;

FIGURE 2 is an end elevation of the base plate viewed from the left of FIGURE 1;

FIGURE 3 is a plan of the base plate;

FIGURE 4 is a further plan of the base plate, showing a rail held by two clips as in FIGURES 5 to 7;

FIGURE 5 is a side elevation of a single-strip clip with turned-under toe;

FIGURE 6 is an end elevation of the clip of FIG- URE 5;

FIGURE 7 is a section on the line 77 of FIGURE 5;

FIGURE 8 is a side elevation of a single-strip clip with upturned toe;

FIGURE 9 is an end elevation of the clip of FIG- URE 8;

FIGURE 10 is a side elevation of a laminated clip of two thicknesses in its upright portion;

FIGURE 11 is a plan of the clip of FIGURE 10;

FIGURE 12 is a side elevation of a laminated clip of three thicknesses in its upright portion;

FIGURE 13 is a plan of the clip of FIGURE 12;

FIGURE 14 is a section on the line 1414 of FIG- URE 12;

FIGURE 15 is a section on the line 1515 of FIG- URE 4, showing clips as in FIGURES 5 to 7 in position; and

FIGURES 16, 17 and 18 are sections corresponding to that of FIGURE 15, but showing clips as in FIGURES 8 and 9; 10 and 11; and 12 and 13 respectively in position.

In FIGURES 1 to 3, a base plate 1, with a transverse seat 2 for the bottom flange 3 of the foot of a rail 4 (FIGURES 4 and 15) and having four holes 5 to enable it to be secured to a sleeper (not shown) has a rectangular slot 6 substantially between each pair of holes 5, the slot extending vertically through the whole thickness of the base plate and having its layer faces 7, 8 parallel to the side 9 of the seating 2 beyond which it lies. The outer face 8 continues to a greater height than the inner face 7, the base plate having outer upper thickened portions it) of width greater than the slots 6, to provide for this greater height and for raised ends 11 for each slot. The ends 11 slope towards the seat edges 9, and the top of the base plate slopes in the reverse direction at 12 to the top of the inner face 7 of each slot.

The inner face 7 has a central vertical recess 13, this relief leaving two symmetrical side portions 7A, 7B (FIGURE 2) as the effective part of the face. Across these side portions is a concave recess 14, above which the face 7 curves smoothly at 15 into the slope 12. The outer face 8 is plain and vertical from above a hole 16 formed by a recess extending on the underside of the base plate from its outer edge to the slot 6.

Except that the height of the right-hand slot is less than that of the left-hand slot, because of the inclination of the seating 2 for canting of the rail 4, the two slots and associated formations are identical at the two sides. As shown by FIGURES 15 to 18, the base plate 1 can receive any of the forms of clip illustrated.

The single-strip clip of FIGURES 5 and 6 has a flat section as shown in FIGURE 7 for generally upright portion 17. This portion bends smoothly into an arch 18, which terminates in an in-turned toe 19, the section diminishing progressively along the arch to the toe, but the width remaining constant (FIGURE 6). The upright portion 17 is mainly convex at 20 on the side facing away from the toe, but to the bottom of that portion the curvature is reversed, to form a short convex length 21 facing oppositely to the convexity 20. The horizontal width 22 between the parallel vertical tangents to the convexities 20, 21 is greater than the width of a slot 6 in the base plate. The recess 14 across the side portions 7A, 7B of the inner face 7 of the slot conforms to the convexity 21.

With the clip presented to the base plate with the bottom of the generally upright portion directed to its slot 6 and guided by the raised ends 11, driving of the clip downwardly, as with a hammer, forces that portion over the curve 15 and springs the portion between the faces 7, 8 of the slot until the convexly curved length lies in the recess 14, before which time the toe 19 has met the rail feet 3, so-that the arch 18 bends during the final driving movement to leave the toe bearing strongly on the foot as a result of the stress imparted to the clip. The upward reaction of the rail foot on the tee 19 is countered by the reaction of the outer face 8 of the slot on the outwardly convex length 20-of the upright portion 17 of the clip, and that of the inner face 7 of the slot on the shorter inwardly convex length 21 at the bottom of that portion. The resultant force on that portion 17 of the stressed clip tends to urge the portion deeper into the slot 6, but

the mating of the curved recess 14 with the one convex length 21 keeps the clip located in the predetermined position that it reaches simply by being driven in. The result is that 'the clip resists removal from the slot by the reaction of the rail, even under the vibration to which it is subjected in use.

Removal of the clip, as by the use of a pinch bar inserted through the hole 16, involves relatively little effort, since the force applied hasapart from friction-to overcome only the difference between the downward thrust at the recess 14 on the upright portion 17 of the clip and the smaller upward thrust on that portion arising from the stressed state of the clip. This difference operates to maintain a tendency for the portion 17 to descend in the slot 6, a tendency that is of course resisted by the engagement of the convex surface 21 in the recess 14 when the clip hasbeen driven to operative position. Thus, any tendency to upward movement in the slot would raise the position of contact made with the recess 14, with the result that the downward component of the thrust at the position of contact would increase and thus overcome the tendency to movement. As shown by FIGURES and 15, the bottom end 23 of the'clip slopes downwardly and inwardly, the better to receive the end of a pinch bar. The like result would obtain if the outer face 8 of the slot 6 had a concave recess to receive the upper and outer convexity 20, the face 7 (or rather its portions 7A, 7B) being left simply vertical to provide a bearing for the lower and inner convexity 21.

The single-strip clip of FIGURES 8 and 9 (seen in position in FIGURE 16) only differs from that of FIG- URES 5 and 6 in that the arch 18A descends directly to the toe-bearing position and ends in an up-turned toe 19A. The width of the strip may be uniform throughout, or, as indicated by broken lines at 24 in FIGURE 9, it may Widen to the toe, the greater the widening the thinner the steel in the direction of the toe.

The laminated clip of FIGURES and 11 (seen in position in FIGURE 17) is of strip uniform in thickness throughout, bent back on itself at the bottom of the upright portion 17, with one thickness 25 forming an arch 183 leading to an upturned toe (as in FIGURE 8) and the other thickness 26 stopping short over the top of the arch and there tapering to a lesser width, as shown at 27. The broken lines show the stressed shape of the clip corresponding to the inserted position seen in FIGURE 17.

The laminated clip of FIGURES 12 to 14 (seen in position in FIGURE 18) is 'formed of three uniform thicknesses, united at the bottom of the upright portion 17. One thickness 28 forms an arch leading to an upturned toe (as in FIGURE 12); a middle thickness 29 stops short over the top of the arch; and a third thickness 30 stops shorter still; the ends of the shorter thicknesses 29, 30 are tapered to a lesser width, as shown at 31. Within the upright portion 17, the three thicknesses are dimpled at 32 for mutuallocation.

What I claim is:

1. A spring clip for association with an uprightly slotted base plate for a flat-bottomed rail, comprising a strip of flat section spring steel the edgewise configuration of which presents an arch terminating at one end in a downwardly directed toe to bear on one side of the rail foot, and a generally upright portion forming a continuation of the arch directly downward at the other end thereof, by which upright portion the clip can be engaged to the base plate by the insertion of said portion down the upright slot in the plate, for which engagement the bottom of the upright portion has a lowermost short length of convex curvature on the side facing the toe to engage one side of the slot, and a greater length having a convex curvature on the side facing away from the toe to engage the other side of the slot, this greater length merging smoothly both from the said lowermost short length and into the arch.

2. A spring clip as in claim 1, of laminated construction in the upright portion, but with only one thickness extending over the whole length of the arch to the toe.

3. A spring clip as in claim 1, of laminated construction, with more than two thicknesses in its upright portion, one extending over the whole arch and the others stopping progressively shorter on the upper side of the arch.

4. A spring clip as in claim 1, wherein the arch sweeps beyond the bearing position of the toe and then turns downwards and inwards to provide the toe.

5. The combination of two spring clips and an uprightly slotted base plate for a flat-bottomed rail, each clip comprising a strip of flat section spring steel the edgewise configuration of which presents an arch terminating at one end in a downwardly directed toe to bear on one side of the rail foot, and a generally upright portion forming a continuation of the arch directly downward at the other .end thereof, by which upright portion the clip can be engaged to the base plate by the insertion of said portion down one upright slot in the plate, for which engagement the bottom of the upright portion has a lowermost short length of convex curvature on the side facing the toe to engage one side of the slot, and a greater length having a convex curvature on the side facing away from the toe to engage the other side of the slot, this greater length merging smoothly both from the said lowermost short length and into the arch, and the base plate having a seating recess for the rail foot, a generally upright slot being formed at each side of the recess each slot being parallel to the nearer side of the recess and of a size in that direction to receive the width of the upright portion of one of the clips, and each slot being spaced from the recess by less than the length of the arch span of the clip, one wide face of each slot being formed with a transverse concave recess to conform to and receive one of the convexly curved lengths of the upright portion of the clip, the bottom convex length of the upright portion of the clip hearing at a lower level on the inner face of the slot than the level at which the longer convex length bears on the outer face of the slot.

6. The combination as in claim 5, wherein the inner face of each slot has the conforming recess to be engaged by the bottom convex length of the upright portion of the corresponding clip, the outer face being vertical to provide the bearing at a higher level for the longer convex length of the clip.

7. The combination as in claim 5, wherein the inner 2,357,498 9/44 Boyce et al. 238349 face of each slot is formed with a central vertical recess, 2,357,629 9/ 44 Cantrell et alt 238349 to provide bearing surfaces for the two side portions only 7, 9/ 4 Cantrell et a1 238349 of the bottom convex length of the corresponding clip. 2,613,876 10/52 y e 238-306 8. The combination as in claim 5, wherein from each 5 2,651,469 9/53 y 238349 outer edge of the base plate there is formed a hole on its 2,954,169 9/60 RlgbY 238-349 underside, the hole extending into the bottom of the slot FOREIGN PATENTS nearer that outer edge of the plate, for the insertion 2 of a pinch bar below the corresponding clip. 4 L769 12/34 Great Bmam 10 498,016 1/39 Great Britain. 829,623 3/60 Great Britain.

References Cited by the Examiner 554,286 1/57 Italy.

UNITED STATES PATENTS 1 3 197 32 Faries et aL 23g 3()4 ARTHUR LA POINT, Examine!- 1,942,464 1/34 Willard 238287 15 LEO QUACKENBUSH, Examiner. 

1. A SPRING CLIP FOR ASSOCIATION WITH AN UPRIGHTLY SLOTTED BASE PLATE FOR A FLAT-BOTTOMED RAIL, COMPRISING A STRIP OF FLAT SECTION SPRING STEEL THE EDGEWISE CONFIGURATION OF WHICH PRESENTS AN ARCH TERMINATING AT ONE END IN A DOWNWARDLY DIRECTED TOE TO BEAR ON ONE SIDE OF THE RAIL FOOT, AND A GENERALLY UPRIGHT PORTION FORMING A CONTINUATION OF THE ARCH DIRECTLY DOWNWARD AT THE OTHER END THEREOF, BY WHICH UPRIGHT PORTION THE CLIP CAN BE ENGAGED TO THE BASE PLATE BY THE INSERTION OF SAID PORTION DOWN THE UPRIGHT SLOT IN THE PLATE, FOR WHICH ENGAGEMENT THE BOTTOM OF THE UPRIGHT PORTION HAS A LOWERMOST SHORT LENGTH OF CONVEX CURVATURE ON THE SIDE FACING THE TOE TO ENGAGE ONE SIDE OF THE SLOT, AND A GREATER LENGTH HAVING A CONVEX CURVATURE ON THE SIDE FACING AWAY FROM THE TOE TO ENGAGE THE OTHER SIDE OF THE SLOT, THIS GREATER LENGTH MERGING SMOOTHLY BOTH FROM THE SAID LOWERMOST SHORT LENGTH AND INTO THE ARCH. 